A Look at Apple's Latest iTunes Update With Redesigned Mini Player and More

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A Look at Apple's Latest iTunes Update With Redesigned Mini Player and More

iTunes is getting more features! But hey, some bloat is good bloat.

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Apple is adding still more features to the already overbloated iTunes because, you know, it needs more bloat.

The latest update to the music music/video/movies/app manager and player – classically dubbed version 11.0.3 – includes a redesigned Mini Player, album art in Song View, support for multi-disc albums, and some search and performance enhancements. It isn't the major update we hope to see Cupertino make to this once-great platform, but, hey, at least it's not getting any worse.

Here's a look at the newest features, to help you decide whether you want to download yet another Apple iTunes update.

Album art in songs view.

Image: iTunes

You can now see all of your pretty album art on the left when in the Songs viewing mode. It's a nice design element, but if album art isn't available for a lot of your music – which is the case for me – it's not very useful.

The new Mini Player.

Image: iTunes

The new Mini Player consuming as little space as possible. Apple introduced the Mini Player in 2011, so it should look pretty familiar.

Mini Player with full album art.

Image: iTunes

What is new: the Mini Player can expand to be album art.

Mini Player with list of songs.

Image: iTunes

You can see what songs are in said album or playlist.

Mini Player with search.

Image: iTunes

And you can search through your entire iTunes library via the Mini Player.

Album art with song view.

Image: iTunes

And just as a refresher, in case you haven't seen the new iTunes 11, it lets you view songs listed over full album art.

Upcoming songs list.

Image: iTunes

The full-blown desktop player also has a little list button at the top that lets you see the upcoming songs, and clear them on a song by song basis.

"In the Store" option under song view.

Image: iTunes

As for iTunes Store functionality, you can click an "In the Store" button while in song view. From there, you can buy other albums and songs by the same artist. The Store will also give you recommendations based on that artist.

Store browsing history.

Image: iTunes

The iTunes Store will also keep track of your browsing history, letting you quickly go back to songs, movies or TV shows that you've previewed. It doesn't track everything that you've glanced out, only the stuff where you've listened to or watched a sample.